Jailed couple accused of stealing from 89-year-old man in Hollywood

It started with the promise of a May-December romance and it ended with a couple in jail, accused of taking $280,000 from an elderly man, Hollywood Police said.

Gina Stevens, 25, met the man, 89, last November or December in Publix, 5211 Sheridan St. She introduced herself as Gina Tiffany Williams and struck up a friendly conversation. She kept in touch with him and portrayed herself as a single mother who was about to be evicted, according to the arrest report.

The man opened his heart and wallet on Jan. 14 and rented the woman an apartment in the 3600 block of North 56th Avenue in Hollywood. Mathew Stevens, 25, moved in as well. She referred to him as her gay cousin, the report stated.

She told the elderly man that she wanted to marry him; he gave her a credit card to buy a $7,500 engagement ring. In February, she told him she owned waterfront property in Chicago worth $500,000 but she needed money to satisfy a tax lien before she could sell it, investigators said.

She promised to repay the tax lien loan and any profit from the property sale. She withdrew $90,000 on Feb. 13, $40,000 on Feb. 25 and $150,000 on April 10 from the elderly man's Wells Fargo checking account, court records showed.

After the first cash withdrawal, Gina Stevens, still calling herself Williams, drove to a UPS Store and asked her fiance to watch her children while she sent the money to a lawyer in Chicago. UPS records showed she sent the money to a Crystal Williams in Las Vegas, investigators said. She disappeared a short time later.

The search for the fictitious Gina Williams led Detective Daniel Justus to Gina Stevens, who owned no property in Chicago. Court records also showed she identified Mathew Stevens as her husband in a domestic battery case.

On May 29, the detective tracked down Gina and Mathew Stevens, who were in Nevada. Mathew confirmed that they had been married for about a year. When asked about the case, Gina Stevens denied owning any property in Chicago, denied taking any money from the 89-year-old and denied going to the bank with him, Justus said.

Wells Fargo surveillance pictures showed her with the elderly man at the time of the withdrawals, police said.

Gina and Mathew Stevens were arrested in Las Vegas and booked Tuesday into the Broward County Jail on theft and fraud charges.

Defense attorney Jim Lewis said the couple has three children, ages 4, 2 and 4 months, who are living with their maternal and paternal grandparents in Las Vegas.

Lewis maintains his client had nothing to do with the scheme. "Our position is that [Mathew Stevens] didn't take money from anybody," said Lewis. "It's alleged this young lady befriended the victim in the case."

During a Friday court appearance, the prosecutor expressed concern that Gina Stevens was a flight risk because no U.S. identification could be found for her, she had claimed at various times to be from Iran and Italy and that her children were born in Canada, investigators said.

"The court is concerned that this could be a roving or moving scam artist or, for lack of a better term, a grifter," Broward Judge John "Jay" Hurley said at the hearing. "It appears that she goes to some effort to create a façade about identity,"

Bond was set at $380,500 for Gina Stevens and $300,000 for Mathew Stevens, jail booking records showed.